Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire represented the Knicks very nicely in Miami tonight. They both were the marquee players in Team Wade’s victory. STAT had maybe the highlight of the night when he dunked over Kevin Durant in the 4th quarter. Melo hit a clutch 3 pointer with 2 seconds left to put the game into overtime. He finished with 30 points and 11 rebounds. While Melo left the game in overtime with a calf cramp, Amar’e took over. He had 5 big points including 2 classic Amar’e style awkward looking shots.

Melo again looked in shape and he actually played some good defense tonight. Despite the fact that there were no real big men on Team LeBron, Stoudemire did look very good tonight.

Over the past couple weeks, numerous reports have surfaced about former Knick coach and president of basketball operations Isiah Thomas being related in potential New York Knick related activities. There have been reports that he has been trying to help recruit Hornets free agent to be Chris Paul to New York as well as reports that he has been working out Amare Stoudemire at FIU. So what really is going on here?

Thomas is absolutely involved with the Knicks. His love affair with Knicks owner James Dolan has not stopped since Thomas was forced out by the NBA. Dolan tried to get Thomas on as a consultant but that was rejected by the league because Thomas is currently the head coach at FIU. The same FIU where Amar’e Stoudemire has been working out this offseason. The same FIU that is hosting a street game next month in which Stoudemire, Melo and Chris Paul are all participating in (Thomas favorite Eddy Curry is also expected to play in that game).

These are not coincidences, Isiah “Zeke” Thomas is absolutely involved with the New York Knicks. This should not come as a surprise to Knick fans because he never left! He has been in Dolan’s ear throughout this entire “post-Isiah” period. Thomas helped recruit Melo and Amar’e to New York and he was advising Dolan throughout the Melo trade. Hell, it was probably Isiah’s idea to throw in 4 starters and a plethora of draft picks. Maybe we give Dolan too much credit for undercutting Donnie Walsh’s negotiations, it was probably Isiah! After all he never did know how to manage a team. We only had a 130 million dollar payroll when he was here. He is a god awful executive mind. Did we have some talent? Sure but every team has some talent, we had a few talented players but the team was an absolute joke. Between his point guard Stephon Marbury and his retarded antics, his center Eddy Curry weighing 400 pounds, the Renaldo Balkman pick, his drug overdose, and his sex scandal that cost the Knicks 11.6 million, Isiah Thomas single handedly destroyed his reputation and the reputation of the Knicks in terms of on-court success and off-court class. Any logical human being with half a brain would ban this guy for being within 500 feet of any member the Knicks organization and 10,000 feet away from Madison Square Garden. But James Dolan is no logical human being, he is an absolute moron. Not only did his highly publicized friendship with Thomas continue but it continued to flourish. After Thomas was released by Donnie Walsh, Dolan tried to bring him back as a consultant. Behind the scenes with no official team role, Thomas was brought in to help recruit Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony. Now Thomas is helping to recruit Chris Paul to the Knicks.

This is all part of Thomas’ master plan to return to Madison Square Garden in 2012. By recruiting the 3 superstars to the Knicks, Thomas hopes to re-ingratiate himself to the fans of New York. Then, once the contract of Mike D’Antoni has expired after next season, Thomas will swoop in and return to the perch that he believes should still be his. To be honest, this is probably the smartest thing that he has ever thought of. Obviously most fans will still dislike him, but I believe if Chris Paul is a Knick in 2012 many fans will forgive Thomas for his 5 years of mismanagement, losing and off-court problems.

Overall, this entire plan is scary as hell. The Knicks are on the path to success and grabbing Isiah Thomas will absolutely kick the Knicks right into the bushes. He was never a good coach, he has no place in any NBA organization and the only person blind enough to see that is Dolan. Hopefully, my assumptions are incorrect but I have a bad feeling that I am correct and we will see the man they call “Zeke” return to the garden in 2012.

Sunday night after the Melo league loss to the Philly league, Knicks star Carmelo Anthony revealed that he had 2 offseason surgeries during the offseason. Melo had arthroscopic surgery on his knee as well as an elbow procedure done in May. He suffers from chronic bursitis in his elbow. During the season, his elbow injury was publicized by the media but nothing was ever said about any knee problem. The Melo vs Goodman league game was the first time that Melo had been on the court since the offseason as he was shut down for most of it during rehabilitation.

As well as revealing his surgical procedures, a noticeably thinner Melo also revealed he was at 230 pounds, 5 pounds less then his playing weight from last season. Anthony came under some scrutiny last season from Knick fans wanting to see a thinner, more toned Melo.

I would tend to agree that Melo should at least be a bit more toned. From a defensive standpoint, obviously the quicker the better. A higher level of defensive ability would allow Melo to be more versatile on a team that is not particularly deep. Melo right now is not quick enough to check shooting guards but his quickness on offense leads me to believe he at least has the potential. Realistically he will never guard twos but if he is serious about his defense and gets better he certainly has the potential to. LeBron guarded Derrick Rose in the playoffs. Now obviously defensively LeBron is on a whole other level compared to the Meloman but that doesn’t mean Melo won’t ever eventually become proficient on defense. If Melo and STAT want to take this championship run seriously, they have to improve on defense and this is a good start for Anthony.

This sunday, Sportsillustrated.com will be streaming a live feed of the Melo League vs Philly League Game. The “Battle for I-95″ will include superstars Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. I am excited to watch this game as I am itching, like all NBA fans, to see some basketball. The Philly league roster for the game includes Lou Williams, Hakim Warrick, the Morris brothers, John Salmons and Wayne Ellington. The game is set for 6 pm eastern time at the Palestra on the UPenn campus.

Video has arisen of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade doing a dance off with some chinese children during their Jordan tour in China. I like seeing things like this in where professional athletes are giving back to some children. Granted these aren’t American children but still, I like to see stars giving back.

On the eve of the second meeting by the NBA and NBAPA to discuss the lockout, the Melo League All Stars led by Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and LeBron James defeated the Kevin Durant led Goodman League team 149-141 at Morgan State University. Durant had a game high 59 points while LeBron had 38 and Carmelo had 27. Other notable players in this game included: Josh Selby, Gary Neal, DeMarcus Cousins, Brandon Jennings, Donte Greene and Hugh Jones.

I believe these pro-am leagues are great for basketball right now. The attendance for these games is fantastic and I think these games are great because they give fans the chance to see players that they may not be able to see during the NBA season. NBA tickets are not cheap, especially at Madison Square Garden (thanks Dolan) so Melo playing for free in Baltimore, where he grew up, gives those fans a chance to see an NBA star that they could not regularly see.